Wednesday, September 15, 2010

D-Day is here!

Training is officially over and I'm in charge tomorrow morning. It's good thing I'm not handwriting this because that first sentence would be too shaky to read! I'm sure it will be fine; the software we use is pretty simple and we've been getting plenty of anglophones in lately. It's my old nemesis - the phone - that I'm mostly worried about. Nothing makes me break out in hives like the thought of having to have a conversation on the phone in French, and it's even worse when you're starting a new job and you have no idea what the caller's talking about. I think I've got a good support system in place in the form of colleagues that have readily volunteered to help, so there's no reason for it all go explode in my face. Right? Right.

**gulp**

Other than that, I love this job. I'm still as excited about it as I was when I applied for it. There's only one bit of trouble in paradise, and it comes in the form of a colleague. Of course. Apparently Little Miss Sunshine thought she was getting my position and has been cranky ever since. After we met briefly, she even complained to the direction that "she doesn't even speak French." Hm. Should have known it was too good to be true. At least I should only have to see her about once a week. If I'm lucky.

Meanwhile, everything in our house is covered with dust as the electrician continues working through the apartment. Of course we already knew that the previous tenants had questionable taste but we were surprised to find that anytime someone wanted to redecorate, they simply repapered the walls over whatever was there before. So far we've seen the original wallpaper (which is 40 years old!) in all the bedrooms and discovered that there are no less than four layers of wallpaper in the living room. Pictures are definitely coming!

And finally, because there hasn't been enough excitement around here, our washing machine has gone to the big laundromat in the sky, so guess what we're doing this weekend. Good thing I got a job, huh?

I worked on the French desk for a major airline for many years. I still remember how scared I was those 1st few weeks, months speaking with people on the phone in French. You never knew what they were going to ask and you didn't have the benefit of facial expressions and gestures. Some of the accents (callers originally from Vietnam and Haiti in particular) were really tough to understand. I developed a good ear, that's for sure! So I can empathize with you.

You might already know that all French companies are required to put money towards further training for employees. If they don't sign up their own employees for classes (language, computer skills, etc) then the money just goes to the government. Ask your HR department or boss if you can get French classes at work. In my first job, they were happy to have someone come to the office during my lunch hour. No one had thought to set it up, but they were happy to help me once I asked. I asked my teacher to just concentrate on my problems with the phone, which she did, and which helped me LOADS.

Who's that girl?

Born on Long Island, raised in Florida, but a Carolina girl at heart, Vivi married Stéphane in 2004, moved to his native Champagne, and has been highly confused ever since. They were joined by their son, French Fry, on November 2, 2008.